Dorjee Khandu cremated with state honours

Thousands of people bid a tearful adieu to former Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu whose mortal remains were consigned to flames on Tuesday, 10 days after his death in a chopper crash.

Over 7,000 people gathered at the cremation ground at Shebdung near his native village in Tawang district on Tuesday morning to pay their last respect to their ‘Laughing Buddha’, as he was fondly called.

The last rites were performed as per Monpa traditions along with state honours. The body was taken to the cremation ground from his residence after chief minister Jarbom Gamlin, his cabinet colleagues, speaker Wanglin Lowangdong, AICC leaders Dhaniram Shandil and Sanjoy Bapna, legislators and other senior officials paid tributes to the departed soul.

“It is the saddest day of our state as we gather here today to pay our respectful adieu to our beloved leader,” CM Gamlin said. “(He) was an ocean of compassion, pure, virtuous, a visionary and a pioneer of modern Arunachal Pradesh. It is very hard to believe he no more amongst us,” Gamlin said with tears in his eyes.